Many times, for example, in a military or civilian security operations, it is required to detect and visualize hidden adversaries in jungles and desert or life hazards such as chemical and bacterial contamination hot spots, adsorbed or intruded foreign objects that are covered, e.g. shrapnel under a wounded soldier's skin while out in a field operation. Diagnostic equipment, such as, X-ray and ultrasound scanners which are often used to visualize foreign objects (e.g., inside the human skin) are usually heavy and expensive. For instance, conventional X-ray scanners are large, power hungry and often require special operating conditions that may not be feasible to provide in the field operation. Further, in case of conventional ultrasound scanner, a transducer for ultrasound is pressed into the region of injury with coupling fluid, which may be cumbersome to carry out in the in the field operation, and is also invasive and painful. Such military operations may also, sometimes, require to detect toxic chemicals and other airborne hazards. Tabletop spectrometer with swabs can accurately detect chemical hazards but they require meticulous steps and can be heavy to carry around for on foot patrols and street policing operations. Besides military and civilian safety applications, monitoring healthy edible inventory, production facilities, airports, surveying disaster zones, geological explorations for research, minerals or fossil fuel relies largely on time consuming bulky devices, which often requires additional offline data processing to retrieve actionable information.
Hyperspectral imaging is rapidly gaining market in medical imaging and chemical anomaly detection. Some cameras employ hyperspectral (or multispectral) imaging to capture many optical bands within and outside of the visible spectrum. Such hyperspectral imaging devices can be implemented to detect camouflaged object with a high degree of confidence in a crowded environment such as battlefield, concert area, sports arena, airports, processions, and protests. Further, such devices are capable of distinguishing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials present or planted in civilian, as well as in a battlefield setting. However, standard hyperspectral imaging systems might weigh several kilos and require dedicated computational post-processing steps to retrieve actionable information. That is, these hyperspectral imaging devices are usually large, heavy camera type devices that are typically designed to be mounted on a survey or reconnaissance aircraft or fixed on a scanning frame above conveyor belts in food processing industry. Furthermore, these hyperspectral camera systems are costly and cumbersome, and require a specialist to calibrate, set parameters and finally retrieve actionable information in post processing.
Accordingly, there is a need of a portable imaging device which can be implemented to distinguish chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials present or planted, for example, in a battlefield or in a civilian setting, or the like. In particular, there is a need of a wearable hybrid device that can directly visualize camouflaged adversaries in jungles, deserts and snow or weapons under opaque layer of clothing upon close contact. Similarly, in case of medical emergency in field, evaluate conditions, such as, state of shock, nature of open wounds, identify chemical deposits on the skin or a couple of layers inside the wound and also detect foreign objects, such as shrapnel inside a wounded soldier's skin.